Danica Patrick describes her first full-time season in NASCAR as 'progress.' / Kevin Liles, US Presswire

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Danica Patrick's first full season of competing in NASCAR hasn't featured an abundance of tangible results indicating significant gains.

The encouragement for Patrick comes from flirting with contention - such as the recent Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway when she was running fifth and catching the lead pack as she had done often as a star of the Indianapolis 500.

"That was one of the first times I felt like, 'I could be a leader right now. I'm catching them.' Those are the moments that get you excited," Patrick told USA TODAY Sports.

It's been a long year figuratively and literally for the most famous woman in auto racing. In running the most intensive schedule of her career - 33 Nationwide Series and 10 Sprint Cup races - Patrick often has struggled just on the fringe of top-10 consistency. Fourteen of her Nationwide finishes have been between 11th and 14th.

But there have been glimmers of hope, particularly on the Nationwide Series, such as leading at Daytona International Speedway and the road course at Montreal. Patrick said "progress" is the best way to describe her season, and there are incremental signs of growth in both series.

In Sprint Cup with Stewart-Haas Racing (which will run her full time in NASCAR's premier series in 2013), she has posted three top 25 finishes in her past five races after opening her career with five finishes of 29th or worse. In Nationwide, she has two of her four top 10s in the past three races and has crept up to 10th in the standings with JR Motorsports.

"In the summer, we started to get a lot faster (and) had a lot of bad luck, and now things just seem to be making sense and clicking," she said. "It's too bad it took so long, but at least it came, and it's nice to be finishing out the season stronger. We're better in practice, we're better in the race. I don't know if it's making sense all of a sudden with new people in charge, or having Hendrick Motorsports more involved with the cars. It's probably everything."

Crew chief changes helped

Some of the improvement could be traced to personnel changes. Since JRM switched to crew chief Ryan Pemberton on Patrick's No. 7 Chevrolet six races ago, Patrick has scored the fifth-most points among Nationwide drivers. Since crew chief Tony Gibson took over her No. 10 ride in Cup two races ago, she has posted consecutive career-best finishes (including a 17th at Phoenix International Raceway).

"I've learned it just takes time and having the right people around you is important," she said. "Certain things sink in quickly and easily and other things take a little longer. Everyone learns at different rates, and I don't really know what mine is.

"That allows for doubt and confidence issues to set in, but Tony Gibson has been especially great because he says, 'Girl keep your head up, you're doing great. You made progress, your feedback is awesome, and I'll give you a better car.' "

Sprint Cup team owner and mentor Tony Stewart also assembled a difficult roster of tracks for Patrick to tackle in the hopes of short-term pain leading to long-term gain.

"Her scenario is a little different than a lot of other drivers," Stewart said. "She has been very eager to get to the Cup series, and I still think - more so than some people do - that she has the ability to be successful at this level. The learning curve has been a lot shorter than what it probably should have been. I believe she can do it, but it wasn't going to be easy.

"The schedule she is going to have next year she is going to have to go to these hard tracks. Being able to just have the experience of going the year before, even if it's a rough experience, you at least learn. The second time is always easier. ... Though she may not see the benefit of it right now she will next year."

Patrick remains popular brand

The lack of success in the interim doesn't seem to have made much of a dent on the star power she has built since becoming the first woman to lead at Indy in 2005. Patrick added endorsement deals with Coke Zero and Chevrolet this year and again will appear in Super Bowl commercials - two of them - for sponsor GoDaddy.

Patrick said she didn't expect much erosion in her appeal because of the staying power of her popularity.

"It takes a while for things to sink in, and you have to be around for a while," she said. "I remember wondering at the beginning why we weren't able to get certain deals, sponsors, endorsements, and people kept saying, 'It takes time, it's a slow boat,' and I get that now. Because it's what you prove over time that makes the brand stand, and that's why I think when things don't go well sometimes, it has less of an impact than when you are just off the radar."

IMG senior vice president Mark Dyer, who represents Patrick, said the driver's merchandise sales are the highest of any Nationwide driver since Dale Earnhardt Jr. won consecutive titles in 1998-99. In following Patrick to Cup next year, Dyer said GoDaddy, which has been aligned with Patrick as a primary sponsor since the 2009 Izod IndyCar season, would be increasing its investment in backing Patrick for a full season (with the possible of exception of relinquishing its primary paint scheme for a couple races).

Though Patrick's Q rating, which measures celebrity clout, has dipped, Dyer said it's in line with similar declines for Earnhardt Jr. and four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, and he said there weren't worries about how Patrick's brand would be affected by a learning year in stock cars.

"It was more being concerned how she was going to handle such an increase in workload," Dyer said. "She's really done a great job of adjusting to the mental challenge of racing every week. We can't wait for next year."

David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute, said Patrick's sway could be compared with Nationwide team owner Earnhardt Jr.

"Earnhardt went (143) races without a victory, and it hasn't really harmed his brand," Carter said. "Though I think you have to turn it around and say, 'How much more could either of those brands had been accelerated had they been more competitive on a consistent basis?' So it's hard to say, 'Hey it hasn't hurt her,' or imagine where she might have been if she'd been winning some of these big races. Maybe there'd been more dramatic upside.

"With Earnhardt Jr., you have a very strong, stable, unwavering fan base that sticks with him rain or shine. Maybe NASCAR is one of the few sports where your brand can be so strong as to overcome a lack of performance. The Chicago Cubs get away with it, but the rest of the sports space, there are very few entities where if you don't win and win with style, you're in big trouble. Maybe drivers like Danica and Dale Jr. have connected with their fan base so that winning isn't everything."

Said Patrick, who describes her brand as being a woman who is changing the way people think by breaking new ground: "There have been some really great things that have happened this year, and I'm fortunate to be able to do so well outside the car with endorsements. I think it's a unique position that not a lot of people have, and I'm grateful for that."